Sunday, May 24, 2015

XFINITY: Jeff Green Scores 70th NASCAR Last-Place Finish

SOURCE: Rubbin's Racin' Forums

Jeff Green picked up the 65th last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Hisense 300 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway when his unsponsored #19 TriStar Motorsports Toyota fell out with a vibration after he completed 2 of the race’s 200 laps.

The finish was Green’s 5th of the season, his first since Richmond, three races ago, and came in his 399th series start. It is also Green’s 70th last-place finish across NASCAR’s top three divisions - the most of all drivers. In the all-time standings, Green now stands 31 finishes ahead of second-place Joe Nemechek.

The car Green drove at Charlotte wasn’t the same #10 he carried to his previous four last-place finishes in 2015, but instead the #19 previously driven by teammate Mike Bliss. Bliss joined TriStar’s XFINITY Series team after he left Curtis Key’s program at the end of 2010. His best finish in four full seasons with TriStar has been an 8th in the July 2012 race at Daytona. While the Daytona finish came while driving TriStar’s #44, Bliss has started the majority of his TriStar races in the #19, a car which has run full races despite a frequent lack of sponsorship.

Following Bliss’ 34th-place finish at Talladega earlier this month, TriStar Motorsports welcomed back veteran Eric McClure, who had originally left to sign with JGL Racing for 2015. On May 8, after finishing no better than 17th in the Daytona opener, McClure and his #24 Reynolds Wrap Toyota rejoined TriStar at Iowa, forcing his old team to reduce its field of 6 cars to 5. The decision was apparently made to scratch Green’s #10 and to convert Bliss’ #19 into Green’s new “start-and-park” entry, leaving Bliss without a ride. The net result was a 39th-place run for the #19 at Iowa, where driver Charles Lewandoski was edged by Carl Long for the last-place finish.

Green, who during the Iowa weekend was participating in the Sprint Showdown, returned to the same Charlotte track to attempt both the Cup and XFNITY Series races. On Thursday, Green’s #30 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet was the second-slowest of the five drivers who missed the race. For Saturday’s XFINITY event, however, Green was able to rely on his Past Champion’s Provisional to make the show with a speed of 175.075 mph, bumping Derrike Cope and Mike Harmon from the field.

While Green had run 23rd and 32nd-fastest in the weekend’s two practice sessions, he still pulled behind the wall after just 2 laps on Saturday, securing the first last-place finish of the year for TriStar’s #19. He this time beat Iowa last-placers Motorsports Business Management, whose #40 Braille Battery / Grafoid Toyota was this week driven by Timmy Hill, the young driver making his first series start since Richmond.

38th place went to Jamie Dick, who on Lap 48 lost the engine on his #55 Viva Auto Group Chevrolet entering Turn 1, then spun and backed into the outside wall. 37th went to B.J. McLeod, who gave Rick Ware’s #15 BYB Extreme Fighting Series Chevrolet its fourth bottom-five finish in its last five starts. Rounding out the Bottom Five was the second Motorsports Business Management car of Carl Long, who this time ran a bright green #13 Jaret’s Angels / JDRF Dodge.

LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This is the first last-place finish for the #19 in an XFINITY Series race since September 29, 2001, when Ed Berrier’s #19 Tiger Saws & Blades Chevrolet owned by Cavin Councilor was involved in a single-car crash that ended his race after 10 laps of the inaugural Mr. Goodcents 300 at the Kansas Speedway. Curiously, Jeff Green won that race - his last in the Greg Pollex-owned #10 Nestle NesQuik machine that carried Green to his 2000 series title.
*This is Green’s first last-place finish in an XFINITY Series race at Charlotte since October 11, 2013, when his unsponsored #10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota also fell out with a vibration after 2 laps of the Dollar General 300.

2 comments:

Question Brock: Based on what I'm seeing on owner's points, the old #19 has been renumbered to the #24 for McClure, and the #10 has been renumbered to the #19, but they are essentially still the same teams. Since the #19 is simply a renumbering of the #10, should their last place efforts be combined or are you counting them separately?

For now, I'm counting them separately, but with all these point swaps becoming more common, I might try something else. I've considered removing the car numbers altogether and merely tallying up a team's last-place finishes in the rankings. That way, drivers on multi-car teams would simply add into the team's season total.

In Partnership With TheRacingExperts.com

Pick up your copy of "J.D.: The Life and Death of a Forgotten NASCAR Legend"

Click this picture for details on how to order the first stand-alone biography of the late J.D. McDuffie.

Upcoming "J.D." Book Signings

To Be Announced

by Brock Beard

40 drivers start a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. 40 fill the grid in the XFINITY Series. 32 take the green in Trucks. Yet, even when the field is short, only a handful of these stories are ever told.

The mission of LASTCAR.info is to fill in these missing pieces one week at a time, especially regarding the least-covered racers in motorsports - the last-place finishers.

Since 2009, LASTCAR.info has covered the untold "race" for the most last-place finishes in NASCAR history - and, in doing so, continues to chronicle the trials and triumphs of those who race for something more meaningful than victory: survival.

New NASCAR articles and statistical updates are added following each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup, XFINITY, and Camping World Truck Series race weekend, plus driver features, historical retrospectives, editorials, and more.

LASTCAR Merchandise on RedBubble

Let everyone know which end of the field you watch!

LASTCAR: Cup Series Last-Place Finishers By Track - FREE!

A track-by-track breakdown of Cup Series last-place finishers at every track on the circuit, plus seven tracks from the 1972 schedule no longer in use today! Click the picture for a free copy with free updates each season!

LASTCAR: The Cup Series Book - On Sale For $3.99!

Click the image above to pick up your copy of the first official LASTCAR book, featuring a year-by-year history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from the perspective of the series' last-place finishers! The book is available for download at Amazon.com for just $3.99! Free updates with every purchase!

LASTCAR: XFINITY and Truck Series Expansion Pack - On Sale For $3.99!

My second LASTCAR book, providing a year-by-year analysis of the LASTCAR Champions of both the XFINITY and Truck Series, is now on sale for download at Amazon, Smashwords, and other online retailers! Click the picture for a free sample and more details! Free updates with every purchase!

Formulast One - On Sale For $2.99!

My first Formula One book, featuring a complete race-by-race list of every Grand Prix last-place finisher! Free updates with every purchase!

LASTCAR's Official Definition of a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF)

For LASTCAR purposes, including rankings and statistics, a “last-place finisher” (LPF) shall be defined as any single NASCAR driver who, after earning a starting spot in the field for a NASCAR-sanctioned points-paying race against other NASCAR Sprint Cup, XFINITY, or Camping World Truck Series drivers, was at race’s conclusion classified as the last-ranked qualified driver in the field for said race. This classification must be recognized on official NASCAR results, or failing this, by a preponderance of unofficial sources. Only one driver can be classified as the LPF for any single NASCAR-sanctioned race.

So long as the above is met, the LPF can be any one driver classified as such for any reason, including but not limited to (1) a “did not start,” that is, an entrant who qualifies for a starting spot in the race, but for any reason is subsequently unable to start the event, including a post-qualifying driver switch if it is still recognized as the LPF in the results (2) an entrant who encounters an event once the race has started which prevents the driver from finishing ahead of any other qualified entrants, including both DNFs and a driver who finishes under power but laps down, (3) a decision to “start and park” the driver’s entry, (4) a disqualification handed down by NASCAR and/or track officials that subsequently classifies the driver in the final position behind the unofficial LPF.

LASTCAR shall not consider the LPF as anything else, including but not limited to (1) the lowest-ranked driver who finishes the race under power, (2) the fastest driver who does not qualify for the event in question, (3) a driver who was originally the LPF, but sometime after the race was usurped for the spot by a disqualified entrant NASCAR and/or track officials classified as the official LPF, (4) a driver who may be categorized as finishing last for exhibition events (these entrants shall be ranked only in the rankings for that event, and not commingled with LPFs).

In the rare event where official results or a preponderance of unofficial results are later updated with more accurate information about who was the LPF for that event, LASTCAR rankings and statistics shall be updated to reflect that change.

J.D. McDuffie (1938-1991)

Disclaimer

This is an unofficial NASCAR website. All articles, original art, and other entries are (c) Brock Beard. All car photos were captured from SPEED Channel, Jayski, FOX, ESPN, and TheHotLap.com, or their credited source.